


Claws of Justice

by AMarguerite



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 07:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMarguerite/pseuds/AMarguerite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lieutenant Javert wins a skirmish during the siege of Toulon. Inspired by a tumblr thread started by simplyirenic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claws of Justice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [simplyirenic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplyirenic/gifts).



Captain Jones, of the Yellow Reaper Honoria, was losing. It galled him to admit it, that the great, combined might of the British Aerial Corps and the British Navy were crumbling under the clever attacks of some upstart Corsican. Captain Jones had flown in to Toulon, thinking that the sound of wingbeats all around him were from the other Yellow Reapers of his division— but then Lieutenant Austen cried out, "Sir, they're Fleur-de-Nuits!" and Captain Jones felt enormously stupid. Every midwingman knew Fleur-de-nuits had the same wingbeat as Yellow Reapers. And now, of course, Austen had been shot in the shoulder, by some French lieutenant distinctive only by his savage grin and sideburns, and now Honoria was being boarded. His crew fought as tenaciously as they could, but they were overwhelmed, particularly as the nearest Fleur-de-Nuit had raked Honoria's bellynetting and set their extra munitions tumbling into the Mediterranean. Jones reloaded his pistol with the last of his balls and powder. It was good he had done so; the French lieutenant with the savage grin had jumped off the nearest Fleur-de-Nuit and onto Honoria and appeared behind Jones like some wolfish phantom.

"Go ahead, shoot," said the lieutenant. "You'll miss."

Jones shot.

"Missed," said the French lieutenant. "Didn't I tell you so?" His sword was drawn; he pressed the tip against Jones's throat. "Do you surrender?"

Honoria was keening with distress and said, in broken French, "Yes, yes! Surrender! Surrender!"

It was the work of five minutes for Honoria to land, with her honor guard of preening Fleur-de-Nuits. The French lieutenant escorted Captain Jones off Honoria with the air of a wolf bringing its prey back to its den.

"To whom," Jones asked, very stiffly, in his schoolboy's French, "am I surrendering?"

"Lieutenant Javert, of the Fleur-de-nuit Justice."

Honoria raised her head sulkily. "La Justice? What a stupid name."

Justice, who had been the Fleur-de-Nuit to destroy Honoria's bellynetting, could apparently speak English. She drew herself up, disdain radiating from her moon-white glare. "It is a name I chose for myself. What is your name? I bet your captain gave you some pretentious, Latinate name that does not distinguish you from any other Yellow Reaper. Indeed, I scarcely know you from any other Yellow Reaper except that your wing beat is uncommonly slow."

"Calm your dragon, sir," Jones ordered.

Lieutenant Javert had drawn a snuffbox from his pocket and ignored Captain Jones in favor of taking a pinch of snuff.

"You are my prisoner, you have no right— come with me," snapped Justice. "I named myself because I watch over the galleys here. You shall be a galley slave for your insolence, if you do not take care."

Honoria reared up in terror and attempted to grab Captain Jones in her claws. "You shall not take Fitzwilliam, I shall not let you!"

The other French officers were scrambling about in a panic but Javert merely closed the lid of his snuffbox and said, almost appreciatively, "What fire! But you shall not escape Justice." And indeed, Justice cuffed Honoria on the side of the head, and sent the Yellow Reaper reeling.

Honoria dizzily seized a stone, one of the heavy ballast stones carried by the galley convicts into French ships. At first she was baffled that she had not grabbed her captain, but then cried, "Beware! I shall crush your lieutenant if you injure my captain!"

"You'll miss," replied Javert, advancing, pistols drawn and pointing at Jones's heart.

Honoria heaved the stone; Javert ducked and it went flying over his head.

"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Javert, as Justice raked Honoria across the face with one foreleg and, with the other, seized Captain Jones. "You are just like your captain. Let that be a lesson to you— you cannot escape the claws of Justice."


End file.
